


Faint of Heart and Easily Disturbed

by arttemis



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood and Gore, Demon Deals, Demons, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 05:58:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17038016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arttemis/pseuds/arttemis
Summary: “Mortal!” the demon roars, fire spewing from its mouth in great waves and eyes a blazing red. “Cower before me for your prayers have been answered!”It’s a line ripped straight out of a B-Movie. Tony’s pretty sure he’s seen it too.Rise of the Demon Kingor something.-Tony issomethingand he kills demons for a good time.





	Faint of Heart and Easily Disturbed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “And what can you, mortal, offer?”
> 
> “My soul.”
> 
>  
> 
> _What a fucking idiot._

“Mortal!” the demon roars, fire spewing from its mouth in great waves and eyes a blazing red. “Cower before me for your prayers have been answered!”

It’s a line ripped straight out of a B-Movie. Tony’s pretty sure he’s seen it too. _Rise of the Demon King_ or something.

Tony stays where he is, hidden from view under a desk, and watches the scene around him unfold. He’s not entirely sure where he is. Just that it’s a cave of some sort with a few basic essentials lying around. He _is_ sure that it’s in the underworld. The demon, loud and aggressive as it might be, is of a lower branch in the hierarchy. Low enough that it hasn’t felt Tony’s presence nor noticed the intricate bind he is speaking into existence and wrapping around its arms.

It’s a little pathetic. Even most humans can taste the way the air changes when he enters a room and know to get the hell outta dodge.

The man in front of the demon, however, does cower. Goes as far as to expose his neck and squeeze his eyes shut. Which is _interesting._ The man must have some kind of knowledge of demons to be able to not only understand the language but follow social custom too.

The demon raises itself,  _ puffs out its chest, _ and sneers down at the man. Its right horn is broken off at the base of its head and Tony can see how to an untrained eye it might make the creature look more fearsome but all it shows is its failure. Demons don’t just  _ not  _ grow back their horns. Not unless they were willing given up in exchange for mercy anyway. But, the dark red skin that is almost never natural on a real demon and certainly isn’t on this one, claws almost as long as Tony’s fingers and towering height must paint a horrifying picture for the mortal.

“Why,” and the demon doesn’t seem to have any plans to drop the glamour or the voice, _great,_ “did you call to me?”

“I need to make a deal,” the man says. Tony winces. Need is an awful word to use when conversing with demons. He can practically see the greed in the demon’s eyes when the beast smiles, drool and fire dripping from its mouth.

“And what can you, mortal, offer?” The demon looks the man up and down, smile so wide and unnatural that Tony thinks it will split the creature’s face in two.

The man straightens his back and meets the demon’s gaze. He's tall, taller than Tony. Tony hadn't noticed because the man was too busy hunching himself over to try and appear small but now that he does it grates on him a little. Tony catches a glimpse of something shiny under the sleeve of his jacket. “My soul.”

_What a fucking idiot._

He really should leave the man to his fate. Tony cannot afford to be wasting his time saving every dumbass who offers up their soul without a second thought. But, the bindings _are_ almost done and it’s not like he wasn’t already planning to kill the demon.

Besides, the man is intriguing. He can speak demonic and knows about them but not enough to know how to bargain. Tony wonders if someone sent him down here to fail. It makes the most sense. If that is the case then Tony needs to have a _word_ with whoever did it.

By a _word,_ he does mean inflict serious bodily harm onto the person responsible.

More drool runs down the demon’s twisted and grotesque face at the promise of a soul. It’s one of the more ugly demons Tony’s ever seen and that is saying something. Its form, like that of most demons and unholy beings, speaks to its nature. Cruel, monstrous and disgusting. Tony cannot fathom why the man decided _this_ was the demon he wanted to summon. He’s going to find out though.

Mind made up, Tony crawls a little awkwardly out from under the table, raises his voice and speeds through the enchantments.

Both the man and demon whip around to face him. The demon’s face contorting with anger and lips pulling back further to show off sharp teeth. The man just jumps and if anything seems a little annoyed. _Rude_ _._

“Mortal!” the demon screams so loud that the man drops and covers his ears. He doesn’t get back up again. A few of the more fragile stalactites above crack and fall. He ignores them and walks towards the demon, hands loose by his sides and eyes narrowed.

Tony is _really_ getting tired of that word getting thrown around.

Tony speak faster, lets the combination of Greek and bastardised Latin roll off his tongue so quickly the words seem to fall into each other. The bindings are visible now, glowing a tarnished gold much like metal chains. He adds a few more words so that they crackle with power and burn the demon’s skin.

It makes the demon notice them, finally. It yelps, the unnatural sound tangled in its vocal cords and dragged out so it sounds raw, and tries to pry them off with a clawed hand.

It’s too late for that though. Not that it would have done any good if the demon had noticed earlier. After all, the creature is of lower caste and far enough beneath Tony that he isn’t worried.

The demon roars more words but they are too warped with rage and pain for Tony to pick apart their meaning. That, and he can’t bring himself to care to listen to them.

The last binding loops around the demon’s neck and Tony stops the chant. The demon in turn, stops screaming and folds almost in half as its knees buckle. The flames that were just dancing from the demon’s form sputter and go out. It makes the creature look even weaker.

“Mortal?” is the first thing Tony says now that he has the floor. “You must be real new around here.” He’s close enough that he can feel the demon’s rancid breath on his face and the heat that radiates from it.

Tony Stark is anything but mortal and he’s man enough to admit it’s a bit of a sore spot for him.

He rolls his shoulders to relieve the sudden ache in them. Cracks his neck and shoves down the wings that so desperately want _out_ now that he’s drawn attention to their existence. There’s a time and a place for these things and now fits neither of the categories.

The demon cannot speak. Not with the bindings on. It’s for the best. What it does do is rumble out a silent snarl that does nothing more than shake the demon's chest.

“Yeah.” Tony steps closer, reaches forward and pricks his finger on one of the demon’s large claws. The sting is barely noticeable. Bright blood wells to the surface quickly and starts to spill down his hand despite the small size of the cut. “You keep that anger, buddy.”

It’s easy enough to kill the demon. Trapped and unmoving as it is. Some might call it unsporting of him but Tony’s killed enough of them that he isn’t worried about being _fair_ anymore.

He wipes his finger over the demon’s forehead, leaves a red smear behind. Right where its main source of power resides. His blood starts eating away at the flesh right away. Burns it back as it searches for the power. Drills into bone until a dark coloured light flows like liquid from the demon's skull.

Tony has to take a step back to get away from the smell of rot that usually accompanies a dying demon. He’s _never_ going to get used to it. No matter what Yinsen says.

He turns his back on the demon without a second thought. It’s not like he needs to be present for its death and he’d rather not stick around for it. When demons die that corrupted power gets released back into the world, over, under or above, and seeks out whoever is closest to become reabsorbed. It’s a small enough amount that Tony can’t be bothered to deal with the hassle. Whoever it finds will at most get few inches to their horns.

Tony looks around the cave now that it is empty of threats. Nothing exciting except the man. The man who is still crumpled on the ground. Curled over on his knees with his hands pressed to his ears that are still trickling blood like he was frozen there. It would be unsettling if Tony hadn’t ended up in that position more than once on his first few hunts with Yinsen.

He walks over to the man and crouches so he can see his face and stops himself short. It’s an attractive face but also completely slack. Guy is out like a light. Tony mutters a few words, mixes a few curses in too, and flicks the man on the forehead.

He comes to with a gasp, blue eyes ringed red snapping open. He looks around wildly and Tony has to shuffle back so he doesn’t get headbutted. The man’s pulse is fluttering so fast Tony can make out the beat in his neck. He keeps jerking his head around until his eyes land on the presumably crumbling demon and he goes still. The man’s shoulders sag and his mouth presses into a thin line.

“Hey,” Tony says as gently as he can with the smell of dead demon in his nose and the urge to vomit crawling up his throat. It comes out pretty harsh. Look, Tony’s having a tough time.

The man’s eyes flick away from the demon and to Tony. He seems to calm quickly. “What?” he says, voice flat with an accent that Tony can’t place curling the vowels.

 _Ungrateful asshole._ Why is it that most of the people he rescues happen to have it out for him?

“What’s your name?” Tony shuffles back another few paces. Maybe space would make him seem less threatening. Although, he did just down a ten-foot demon in front of this guy. “I’m Tony.”

“Why the fuck should I tell you, _Tony?_ ” the man spits. He moves his left arm so he’s in a better spot to jump up and Tony hears what sounds like machinery whirring from under the man’s jacket. It’s the same arm that Tony saw the shine from. He _really_ wants to get a look at it.

“Look, man,” Tony says and puts his hands up in a placating gesture. He’s got a little bit more patience for mortals than he does demons. “You can tell me your name or I can just keep thinking of you as the dumbass who _tried to sell his soul for a favour_ in my head.” Tony hopes he put enough stress on the words.

The man grunts and watches him for a solid minute like he’s sizing Tony up before mumbling out, “It’s Bucky.”

 _Bucky._ That’s a terrible name. Tony can work with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I have no idea where this is going. I'll draft up a plot at some point before next chapter.
> 
> I'm working on a few things so don't expect an update till after Christmas/New Years but please stay tuned anyway!
> 
> Please let me know if you see any weird formatting errors or spelling mistakes!!
> 
> Come talk to me about how gross the idea of demons are or anything else [on my tumblr](https://lanternrayner.tumblr.com/)


End file.
